People rely on disposable absorbent products in their everyday lives, including such articles as adult incontinence products, enuresis pants, training pants, and diapers. Many manufacturers seek to better meet the needs of users of such products. For example, there is a need to further improve fit, discretion, and leakage protection for many products. With certain products, such as adult incontinence underwear and enuresis pants, it is important that the garment feel as much as possible like “regular” underwear to promote an improved sense of normalcy to the wearer who suffers from incontinence or enuresis. Many conventional pant-like, pull-on style absorbent garments currently on the market employ a product chassis in which multiple threads of elastic are sandwiched between two nonwoven fabric layers. The strands extend around the body, such that the elastic forces extend primarily around the wearer's waist, as is the case with traditional cloth briefs. This design can provide good fit and leakage performance, but has the potential to be further improved in terms of looking and feeling even more like “regular” cloth underwear. In many instances, it is possible to also sandwich leg elastic strands between the nonwoven fabric layers.
One class of materials that offers the potential to make absorbent garments more “underwear-like” is that of elastomeric film laminates. Elastomeric film laminates are typically elastomeric films sandwiched between two nonwoven fabric layers. The films provide elastic properties similar to elastic threads, but offer a smoother, more uniform appearance. Some products currently on the market employ such elastomeric laminates, and utilize a “three-piece” pant construction in which front and back body panels are each constructed of an elastomeric film laminate and are connected together via an absorbent insert that extends between them. Such designs, however, can in certain instances introduce a difficulty. It is frequently desirable to include additional elasticization around the leg openings. In certain configurations, it may not be possible to simply sandwich additional leg elastic threads between the two nonwoven layers, such as when the elastomeric film laminate is a “pre-laminated” sandwich of an elastomeric film layer between two nonwoven layers. Instead, the leg elastic threads must be affixed to an outer surface of the elastomeric film laminate. In such instances, it is usually necessary to provide an additional layer of material to seal around the elastic threads and any associated adhesive, thereby holding the elastic threads in place on the elastomeric film laminate. Various efforts have been made to achieve this end, but they have been unsatisfactory. What is needed is improved methods of securing leg elastics to elastomeric film laminate body panels in disposable absorbent garments, in part to help, in certain instances, to simplify and improve the high speed manufacture of such garments.